SACRAMENTO, CA – During a campaign stop in Sacramento, U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina today spoke at the California Federation of Republican Women (CFRW) Northern Division Spring Conference about her concerns regarding the health care bill scheduled for a vote in Washington on Sunday.

“The health care reform plan being pushed this weekend in Washington by Democrats like Barbara Boxer is a terrible deal for California. Our nation’s call for affordable, high-quality health care has been corrupted by Washington insiders and their political games,” Fiorina said to the audience. “This bill will lead to higher premiums and higher taxes during a time when Americans can least afford it. At the same time, it does nothing to ensure higher quality patient care.”

Carly has been an outspoken opponent of the Democrats’ health care overhaul plan. She has instead pushed for a health care reform package that actually lowers costs, increases quality and keeps decisions about care between patients and their doctors.

“Democrats have used questionable gimmicks and procedural tricks to push an outrageously expensive package that expands the government’s role in health care,” continued Fiorina. “It’s no wonder Americans are so tired of career politicians like Barbara Boxer and the special interests that back them. It’s clearly time to send new representatives to the U.S. Senate who will stand up for the best interests of our state and our nation.”

Fiorina has consistently called for health care reform legislation that focuses first and foremost on keeping decisions about care between doctors and patients. Any reform measure should build on ideas that we know from experience work, such as:

• Building on programs that provide incentives for receiving preventative care and for healthy lifestyles.
• Reforming malpractice on a national level as has been done in California.
• Providing greater access to lower-cost community-based primary care clinics.
• Encouraging more transparency about pricing and quality of healthcare services.
• Allowing consumers to purchase any health plan from anywhere in the country.
• Creating more market-based competition for everything from health insurance to prescription drugs.